Durban - Tension between Uber and metered taxi drivers in KwaZulu-Natal appears to be boiling over, and an argument between men from the two groups on Thursday morning resulted in one pointing a gun at the other.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Thulani Zwane said the incident took place just outside Durban’s King Shaka International Airport - a major source of business for taxi drivers.
No shots were fired and no case was opened, Zwane said.
Initial reports indicated that a metered taxi driver had pointed a gun at an Uber driver, but the police were unable to confirm this.
A spokesman for the KZN Metered Taxi Alliance, Sizwe Mvubu, said the incident should not be taken lightly.
While he was aware of it, Mvubu also said he did not have any details of the incident.
But he said that if the government did not address the concerns that metered taxi drivers in the province had raised about Uber, things could spiral out of control.
“These are peoples’ livelihoods,” said Mvubu. “If you try to take that away from them, they are going to fight.”
Metered taxi drivers across the country are up in arms over Uber’s presence in South Africa.
Mvubu said Uber was operating illegally, without licences, but the real problem lay with the “unfair competition” it presented.
“They are able to charge much less than us because they don’t have the same running costs.”
Uber spokeswoman Samantha Allenberg said they were aware of the incident and were relieved that nobody had been injured.
She said Uber took any situation in which driver safety was compromised “extremely seriously”.
The Mercury